Goats on the Brain

It's becoming obvious to others that I have goats on the brain.  I can't help it, my preoccupation with these goats is leaking into my everyday conversations.  I may be getting the crazy goat lady reputation.  Do only crazy people keep goats, or does keeping goats drive a person crazy?  

Peaches and the baby are doing really great.  The baby is growing fast and she feels sturdy and well padded.  She's energetic and literally bounces off the walls.  

Peaches is strong and agile and looks good with her new full figure.  The River brothers are mischievous and very robust.  Little Buck, though, is still awful scrawny.  Peaches knocked him to the ground, and he didn't get back up for a long time.  I thought he was having a seizure.  

He had a trip to the vet, who agreed that he is small for his age and doesn't have the muscle tone that he should or an ounce of extra body fat.  He was tested for the dreaded goat wasting disease, CAE, which he doesn't have (whew!), but his stool sample showed a high number of worm eggs.  Does he have too many worms because he is sick, or are the worms making him sick?  Who knows.  

He's to get a series of injections for the worms, and I'm to continue with the herbal wormer that is working well with the other goats.  If it isn't the worms causing his problems, then it's likely something metabolic, like kidney or liver problems.  I'm to focus on good nutrition and low stress. 

Nothing makes a goat person feel better than fresh made cookies, right?  Unfortunately these aren't chocolate brownie bites with powdered sugar.  These are no-bake goat cookies made with herbal wormer (wormwood, black walnut, garlic, fennel, and stevia) mixed with oat flour and maple syrup.  Each little cookie is a half dose, so I can feed everyone a couple of cookies and know for sure they got their dose.  In the past I would sprinkle the powdered herbs on their food, but maybe poor Little Buck doesn't always get his share since he eats slow and Peaches eats fast and is greedy.  

Everyone loves the cookies, especially the donkeys, who press their muzzles to the fence in anticipation.  Mmmm... gimme garlic cookies!

It took a few days to get the goats used to the sprouted wheat fodder that I've been growing in the kitchen, but now that they've tried it, they gobble it up.  Little Buck especially likes it, so I'm glad to find something he will eat.  The roots form a mat in the tray, so I used a knife to cut it into squares.  The donkeys munch huge bites, but the chickens peck each little seed.  

A tray of goat cookies and a bucket of fodder.  It's no wonder I have goats on the brain - I'm in the kitchen prepping food for the goats more often than I am for myself!